WASHINGTON -- The United States on Sunday imposed sanctions over Iran's ballistic-missile testing even as President Barack Obama hailed the release of five Americans from Tehran's custody and the implementation of a nuclear deal.
Obama pledged to counter vigorously Iran's "destabilizing behavior" across the Mideast even while the U.S. engages with the Islamic Republic. After the Americans had been freed, Obama announced economic sanctions against 11 individuals and entities as a result of a ballistic-missile launch in October.
The new sanctions are mostly aimed at individuals and some small companies accused of shipping crucial technologies to Iran, including carbon fiber and missile parts that can survive re-entry forces.
The Treasury Department said the new sanctions apply to, among others, the Mabrooka Trading Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, and its networks based in that Persian Gulf country and in China. It said they have used front companies to deceive foreign suppliers about the true end-users of "sensitive goods for missile proliferation."
"We're not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners," Obama said.
With the sanctions announcement, Obama also sought to counter criticism from GOP lawmakers and presidential candidates that his actions had appeased a nation that has aided the spread of Islamic extremism.
"It reflects a pattern we've seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists and making deals and trades that endanger U.S. safety and security," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said on Fox News Sunday.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said on CBS' Face the Nation that the freed Americans were not prisoners, saying they had violated no laws and instead were being held as "hostages." He also expressed concern that the exchange for the prisoners held in the U.S. created a bad precedent.
"The president has pardoned them in exchange for a release of hostages," he said. "It proves once again that now nations and enemies of America around the world know there's a price for Americans.
"They're not our allies," Rubio said. "They're not our friends."
Donald Trump, on ABC's This Week, refused to give Obama credit for the prisoner exchange.
"This should have happened years ago," he said. "We're giving them $150 billion. This shouldn't be happening now. And I understand that in addition to the $150 billion, they're getting hostages, also, or they're getting some prisoners released."
But Obama said he decided "that a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government."
Democratic lawmakers who supported the agreement applauded the sanctions announced Sunday. Five Democratic senators said in a joint letter to Obama that failure to impose the restrictions could encourage Tehran to violate international obligations with impunity.
Obama said the U.S. and Iran had also resolved a long-standing dispute over money Iran used to buy military equipment from the U.S. before the two countries broke ties. Iran will get more than $400 million, plus $1.3 billion in interest.
The White House said its lawyers assessed that the U.S. could have faced a "significantly higher judgment" if the case continued.
"There was no benefit to the U.S. is dragging this out," Obama said.
White House officials said during a briefing held after the president's address that Iran could play a significant role in resolving the Syrian civil war, but profound differences exist. They said Iran needs to understand the fighting won't be resolved as long as Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power.
The officials said they know Iran is not going to dramatically change its actions in the next year or two.
"If Iran does act in a more constructive fashion, it would be a positive development in resolving difficult issues," the White House officials said. "If they don't, we will continue to enforce our sanctions and continue to have very strong differences."
Iranian reaction
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that the official implementation of the nuclear deal has satisfied all parties except radical extremists.
Speaking before the parliament in comments broadcast live on state television, Rouhani said, "In [implementing] the deal, all are happy except Zionists, warmongers, sowers of discord among Islamic nations and extremists in the U.S. The rest are happy."
Rouhani said the deal has "opened new windows for engagement with the world."
A strong supporter of the agreement, Rouhani sent out a celebratory tweet calling it a "glorious victory" late Saturday night while the speeches in Vienna were still taking place.
Rouhani also said the deal was a win for all negotiating parties and all factions inside Iran. "Nobody has been defeated in the deal neither inside the country nor the countries that were negotiating with us," he said, referring to the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Rouhani said that since the sanctions were lifted, the door had opened for foreign investments in the country, even by U.S. companies.
"They can invest here any time, but they have their own obstacles to do so," Rouhani said.
Rouhani said Iran should use the expected influx of money and investments to spark the "economic mutation" of the country, creating jobs and enhancing quality of life for Iranian citizens. Iran has been suffering double-digit inflation and unemployment rates for years.
He also said Iran now needs political tranquility to best benefit from the new economic reality. "All should prevent any domestic and foreign trivialities that thwart us," he said. "Any irrelevant and diverting dispute is against national expedience."
More than $30 billion in assets overseas will become immediately available to the Islamic Republic. Official Iranian reports have set the total amount of frozen Iranian assets overseas at $100 billion.
A European oil embargo on Iran will end. Already, some 38 million barrels of oil are in Iran's floating reserves, ready to enter the market, according to the International Energy Agency.
Iran is targeting an immediate increase in shipments of 500,000 barrels a day, said Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy oil minister for commerce and international affairs. Iran plans to add another half-million barrels within months. The additional crude will push prices lower when it enters markets that are already oversupplied, said Robin Mills of Dubai-based oil consultant Qamar Energy.
Benchmark Brent crude has dropped 22 percent this year, closing last week at less than $29 a barrel amid oversupply and the looming surge in Iranian output.
Celebrations in Tehran were relatively muted at first, because the Vienna implementation announcement came well after midnight. But on Sunday, many Tehran residents expressed optimism about Iran's future economic prospects.
"Unbelievable. This is a day without sanction after years," taxi driver Reza Khoei said. "I lost my technical job in a petrochemical complex in south of Iran because of the damn sanctions."
Fahimeh Lotfi, a housewife and mother of two, said, "I am very happy. Now we are like other countries. No more will we to go to bed every night while worrying about the worsening situation. Bravo Rouhani!"
Hassan Dehghani, a 26-year-old street sweeper, said, "I hope this helps the municipality to pay my salary on time. Sometimes they pay us with months of delay."
But not everyone was enthused about the agreement, which limits Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The deal is designed with so-called "snap-back" elements that can quickly restore sanctions if Iran is judged to be in violation of its obligations.
Tehran resident Hossein Barati asked, "If America restores the sanctions, can Iran restore its nuclear program? No it can't! They dismantled all the centrifuges. How many years will it take Iran to restore its program?"
Middle East reaction
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his concern. He asserted that Iranian leaders still harbor a desire to build atomic weapons but did not offer evidence to support that claim.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate political and religious authority in the Shiite Muslim theocracy, has said Iran does not want or need nuclear weapons, which he has declared to be forbidden by Islam.
"Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not relinquished its aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons, and it will continue to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world while violating its international obligations," Netanyahu said.
"Israel will continue to monitor the situation and warn about Iran's negative activity, and will do everything necessary to safeguard its security and defend itself," he said.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab opponents of Iran refrained from issuing such critical responses. But officials in Riyadh are skeptical of the nuclear agreement: they fear that with billions of dollars of assets unfrozen by the accord, Tehran will be able to greatly expand its influence across the region.
In the Saudis' view, such a development could affect the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and other countries where rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran use proxies to compete for influence.
The nuclear pact calls on Iran to disable key nuclear equipment in a deal designed to ensure that Iranian officials could never accumulate enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb. The agreement also requires unprecedented inspections and monitoring covering all aspects of Iran's nuclear program, from uranium mining to research facilities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that "diplomacy requires patience, but we all know that it sure beats the alternatives." Implementation of the deal, Zarif said, meant that "it's now time for all -- especially Muslim nations -- to join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready."
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Kevin Freking, Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press; Carol Morello, Karen DeYoung and William Branigin of The Washington Post; Anthony DiPaola, Hashem Kalantari, Ladane Nasseri, Grant Smith and Rakteem Katakey of Bloomberg News; Peter Baker, David E. Sanger, Rick Gladstone and Ashley Parker of The New York Times.
A Section on 01/18/2016